Reconstruction and Development Agency of Armenia

School of the future

The School of the Future

In post-industrial information society the main driving power is the innovative, knowledge-based economy, which means that the key determinant of a nation's/country's competitiveness is a person's creativity, his ability to create innovations in science technologies and art rather than the existence of a large-scale manufacture. It stands to reason that the education system is to undergo radical changes to be able to address the modern challenges and be able to prepare specialists of the future. The main criterion of the system should be the ability to prepare specialists, capable of thinking creatively, independent of dogmas and stereotypes, and to introduce innovations. In other words, the main criterion for the modern education system is teaching thinking skills instead of swoting up subjects. This will be the prerequisite for finding a job and feeling comfortable in a constantly changing society.
For Armenia to become a competitive country, able to solve its internal and external issues we should establish our brand new school based on brand new ideology.

The goal of the School of Future

The main goal of the School of Future is educating creative, harmoniously developed individuals, who will in turn create the base for successfully developing the post-industrial innovative society, a society founded on knowledge.

The objectives of the School of Future

To achieve its long-term objective, the School is to accomplish three basic tasks:
1. Humanitarian-ethical (spiritual) education. Such concepts, as kindness and justice are main preconditions for creating a favorable environment for the development of a personality, family and hence, society and a competitive state. It is vital to initiate this education since early childhood.
2. Physical Education. The accomplishment of this task will ensure harmonious physical development since a young age, which is critical for a person's longevity, further life and activity. 
3. Education Proper.  This will enable rearing creativity and ability for independent decision-making. This is the base for establishing a modern competitive economy. 

Humanitarian-ethical education

To ensure competitiveness for the society and state it is necessary to maintain a creative environment within the state, which presupposes that the state must be governed by the rule of law with equal protection of the law. The objective is unattainable in the environment of legal nihilism among the population, where people lack such moral values as kindness, fairness and care towards the environment. It is extremely difficult to achieve those, if they weren't founded in childhood. Thus, moral values are actually an economic category in the modern state. 
For that reason, the first basic issue of the School of Future is enrooting moral values within students since childhood, for, apart from creating a favorable moral-ethical environment in the society, it is indispensable for the foundation of a competitive post-industrial informational economy.

Physical Education

No modern state can be competitive if its population doesn't take care of its health. It is impossible to provide a high level of life quality without healthy population, active till old age. The base for health should be laid as far back as in school.
The ideology of physical education at school should be different in principle. Formal PE classes at school, aiming at the achievement of certain standards and norms and having nothing in common with an individual's harmonious physical development, should become the thing of the past.  PE trainings should be held on a daily basis and target at the harmonious development of the whole body, strengthening reaction and reinforcing coordination of movements. They must be tailored with due regard for the learners' inclinations and interests.  
The classes must involve modern dances (break dance, hip-hop, etc), weightlifting exercises (parkour), as well as classical sports, such as swimming and gymnastics. Coupling these sports with games develop team spirit and teamwork, as well as contribute to educating a harmoniously developed concordant individual, taking care of their health.

Education System

                    I hear and forget,      
                                             I see and remember, 
                                             I do and understand.  
                                                             (Confucius) 

The classical education in its present form lacks efficiency; the automatic transfer of knowledge to students and the common cramming without perception of the essence are counter-productive. The mechanical memorization of the textbook information, where 80% of the information in text format does not result in a long-term retention, does not contribute to the learner's creativity, based on the ability to apply the accrued knowledge for the creation of the new.  Apart from that, in the modern dynamic world information updates take place so quickly that the textbooks actually grow outdated before they are ever published.
It is therefore necessary to switch from the system of mechanical transfer of ready-made knowledge to another one, enabling learners to strive ahead, explore and make discoveries for themselves, select the subjects they are interested in, to study them more thoroughly and intensively, i.e. teaching them to think independently and creatively.
 It is essential that the system radically changes the motivation for studies. Instead of studying for high scores, which are oftentimes formal and biased, the interest in the thorough research is incited by the desire to learn new things. The IT development resulted in the opportunity to present information in a much user-friendly and approachable way, combining text, graphics, audio and video information. The ratio of graphic, audio and video information, the easiest to assimilate, may comprise up to 60-80% of the whole. Apart from that, modern technologies enable the creation of interactive sphere of integrated learning, exercising an all-round approach towards the subject of the study and applying knowledge from related disciplines. The application of the audio-visual aids and 3D graphics enable to depart from the listless textual narration of the subject, to firstly reinforce the efficiency of the information perceived and stimulate students for further individual research on the subjects of interest. This enables to diverge from the traditional model of imparting knowledge and their mechanical and unconscious memorization towards a new model, based on knowledge acquisition by the students via individual discoveries and accomplishments. In this way, the creative thinking development is actually ensured at the initial learning stage.
Our proposal is to establish an integrated system of interactive learning i.e. an educational knowledge base. The system would enable to motivate the student towards independent study of the subject of interest at any depth available, at a most comfortable pace preferred, without time limits imposed by the school curriculum and irrespective of other students' learning pace. The system will virtually enable every student to study subjects independently, regardless of one's interests and inclinations, which will ensure a most efficient and productive advantage of time.
Along with ensuring the obligatory basic education minimum, the aforementioned approach shall unseal a faster and more in-depth study of subjects, with the learning process occurring not only within school boundaries but also at home, at any time and place within Internet access. The system discussed will ensure a constant supervision in a real-time mode on the part of the instructor and a timely assistance to the student, regardless of their whereabouts.  We're actually switching from a mass average education to an individual one, with due consideration of every student's interests and needs.

The Architecture of the School of Future

Of none the least importance to the School of Future is its architecture. The latter should contribute to the students' studies and the comfort of their stay in the school. There should be no room for dullness and impersonality of the modern school in all its manifestations. The auditoriums and labs should be sunny and ergonomic. There must be a lot of space for interaction among students and teachers beyond the school building. The School of the Future should be buried in verdure, for it is impossible to imagine a comfortable atmosphere apart from its ecological compatibility. A central role for the School must have sports grounds and recreation areas, not only in the form of pools and gyms but also well-equipped open-air recreation grounds. In the sense of architecture the School of the Future must represent a united multifunctional complex, providing full-value instruction and concordant physical and spiritual development for students.  
Thus, having radically reformed the educational system in Armenia we shall establish a new base for the country's post-industrial information economy.